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MPs have backed calls for a simpler approach to the funding and promotion of skills.
At the ePolitix.com lifelong learning and skills symposium on Wednesday, held in association with the Chartered Insurance Institute, speakers highlighted the need for a consensus on skills to counter the effects of the economic downturn.
Chairman of the Commons innovation committee Phil Willis said the skills model should be based around what is being financed rather than "how it is being financed".
Despite the recession, skills are still on the agenda of many employers who are focusing on improving workforce training, Willis argued, "so when the upturn does arrive they are ready to take advantage".
Conservative MP Tim Boswell said policy should give "an air of encouragement" to the skills sector.
"FE and the private training providers have been pretty much knocked about, and they are and remain under pressure but they have a great deal to offer, that's Leitch, and the have a huge resilience and they are frankly never more needed than they are today," he said.
The need for a simpler structure of funding and promotion for adult skills was also emphasised by Liberal Democrat skills spokesman Stephen Williams.
And Michael David, director of strategy and performance at the UK Commission for Employment Skills, stressed the need for a "single adult education system" for further and higher education.
Policymakers should consider a model based on "outcomes" in order to bring the focus back to "employability", David said.
This would give an individual a much better change of getting back into the labour market, he suggested.
Dods Parliamentary Communications Ltd